Part 45
As we head into the doorway, the interior design gets noticably creepier.
Oh, hell. So much for the element of surprise. Way to fucking go, Knox.
King Galam?
Is it too dark? Let there be light!
How kind of him.
King Galam!
Oh, Princess Elis is here!
Where's Zeon? He has not revived fully yet. So I came to welcome you for him.
She isn't moving! Is she dead? We haven't killed her yet. She will be the first sacrifice for King Zeon. What?! Zeon said you'd return her in exchange for the jewel! Ha, ha, ha! He lied. You killed our greater devils. I can't allow this to go on. You shall never see Zeon! I'll kill you before that!Battle #42:
Between us and King Galam are 3 Reapers, 2 Demon Masters, 2 Chaos Warriors, 2 Evil Beasts, 2 Horsemen, a Chaos Dragon, a Devil Griffin, and a Blue Shaman .
The first order of business was to take out that Horseman - I wanted him dead before he could plink away at anyone. Knox earned level 25.
I knew Knox was going to take a hit in retribution, but thanks to his high defense it's nothing a single Heal 3 can't fix.
Unfortunately, while Cluny's defense is also respectable, Chaos Warriors hit quite a bit harder.
Ah, the benefits of long range.
Nigel and Shaggy quickly dealt with the first Chaos Warrior.
Though Cluny can't quite finish off the Reaper by himself.
Ashley drops some healing on Cluny before he keels over.
Thanks to his Mist Javelin, Darin is able to both finish off the Reaper and position himself between Cluny and the next closest enemy. He earned level 24.
Other than Nigel, Darin has the highest defense on the team.
Whoops, I didn't think the Evil Beast would move that far!
An impressive critical from Knox! Another couple of levels and Knox could potentially one-shot them.
Brock gets rid of the beast before it can maul anyone else.
I actually didn't intend for that to happen, but Apple did a fine job acting as bait.
Darin doesn't fear the Reaper.
Knox and Layla put down the second Evil Beast, earning level 24 for Layla.
Since I can't afford to let her die this battle, I have Ashley heal herself back to full.
Layla and Brock can't quite finish the Demon Master off, however...
Brock's move still turned out to be worthwhile.
On the other side of the battlefield, Cluny reminds us why we love him. He earned level 25 and learned Katon 3, which is basically Ninja Blaze 4.
Instead of healing Shaggy, I have Tobias heal Darin and put both of them between Shaggy and the rest of the enemies.
I kind of hoped that he would've hit Knox with a Freeze 4 instead.
Hell, I was almost positive that Nigel would've been able to finish it off.
Ashley drops a Heal 3 on Knox.
While Layla cleans up Nigel's mess.
Not good! I really should've sent more of the force over to this side. I think I'll be able to get rid of them with what I've got over there, but unless I can kill both enemies before they move again, it's gonna cost me.
Shaggy gets things off to a good start, at least.
Quixote gets rid of the Demon Master.
Oh, that's all I need. Galam is now on the move.
Someone needs to get this asshole a mint.
I was really, really hoping that he'd pull off another instant kill, but no such luck.
Looks like I've got to use another Heal 4. It earned Ashley level 25.
One more enemy to go on that side - Tobias earned level 25.
Crap, I probably should've just let Knox die.
On the bright side, Team Cluny was able to kill everything over on their side without any deaths.
The Blue Shaman has to die - It's got Aura 3, and I don't need it healing the last four enemies whenever it feels like it.
Oh, fuck! RIP,
Nigel lets off a well-placed Bolt 3, killing the Blue Shaman. Notice Galam's HP - The blue portion means he's got over 200. I'd estimate around 230.
It gets better - he's 50% magic resistant.
Cherry is downright amazing against fliers, but it isn't quite enough.
Well, this is where my work during the last battle pays off - Quixote finishes off the Devil Griffin with a Bolt 2. He earned level 26 and learned Freeze 4.
Knox is down for the count.
Tobias tossed a Heal 3 onto Cluny as they rush towards Galam.
Shit! I didn't expect that. Tobias's healing came just in time.
Well, it's better than nothing.
Thanks to the bottleneck, Nigel has to go through the Demon Master to get at King Galam.
He has no problem doing so.
The spellcasters continue poking away at King Galam.
Well, there goes Shaggy.
Wow. I am colossally fucked right now.
Surprisingly, things are going according to plan so far - I boxed Galam in so he couldn't kill Layla, and Tobias was able to survive the hit.
Holy shit! A wizard actually managed to survive an attack this late in the game?
Aww, that's just mean.
Odd, I was sure the Reaper was going to stab Cluny in the face. Only Cluny was confused by the Muddle.
Surprisingly, Layla manages to not die.
I can't say the same for Tobias.
The fucking horseman moved right in Nigel's way, preventing me from ending this battle here and now.
There goes Layla.
Cherry fires one last arrow into King Galam's black heart, defeating him at last. She earned level 23.
I've never lost to anybody but the gods. I don't understand! Oh, King Galam... poor King Galam... Princess Elis!
Zzzzz... ...she's waking up! Zzzzz... (yawn)... Princess, princess!
It's me! Astral! Sir Astral? Oh, what happened? Who are they? Nice to meet you. I'm Knox. And this is our leader. Nigel, say something. Oh, it's you.
Er... ummm...
I didn't think two people stammering at each other counted as a private moment.
Regardless, the discussion is cut short regardless as the earth begins to tremble...
Something is coming up through the earth... I almost forgot... about... the other devil...
Oh, I could see how something little like the fucking King of Devils could slip your mind!
Well, shit. As Zeon emerges, the room goes dark - almost as if the light itself was fleeing from his presence.
He absorbs King Galam into himself, feeding off Galam's power.
Zeon!
Sir Astral, we can't! Why not? Princess Elis fainted when she saw Zeon. What? Oh, my. And now we're surrounded by devils. Nigel, believe in your sword and the jewel! We must fight Zeon now! Let's go!Battle #43: The King of the Devils
This is it! Zeon himself! While fighting him we've also got to fend off 5 Pyrohydras, 3 Demon Masters, 2 Arch Demons, 2 Zeon Guards, a Horseman, a Devil Griffin, and a Blue Shaman.
There's just one problem... We've had no chance to recover since the last battle. Only the survivors and our immortal characters are available. So we're down to just Nigel, Cluny, Cherry, Darin, Knox, and Apple. You can egress and revive everyone, but that's the easy way out. In Shining Force 1, if you fled during the Dark Dragon battle, you had to fight Darksol again, and that's the way it should've been here.
Cluny started things off by murdering a Pyrohydra.
Darin and the Demon Master slug it out a little bit.
Cherry is almost able to kill it, but not quite.
Bolt 3? I know that trick.
Nigel fires off one of his own, killing the Demon Master.
The Horseman easily picks off Cherry.
And Knox is hit with a Freeze 4.
Darin and Knox get the Arch Demon off our backs.
Nigel takes some of the wind out of the Horseman.
lol
Scratch one Phoenix.
Apple is just barely able to finish off the Horseman.
Well, the Shaman can cane me a bit harder than the Demon Masters.
Aww, he just HAD to use the attack that actually does significant damage.
Well, at least the other one fails to finish me off for now.
King Galam's HP had gone past green and had a bit of blue. Zeon's is pure black. He's got 500 HP.
That's one ugly son-of-a-bitch, huh?
Down goes Darin. Note that Zeon's HP bar didn't appear to go down, even though I hit him - It'll be a while before you can tell you're even scratching him.
This still wasn't enough to put a dent in his HP bar.
It'll take more than that to bring Cluny down.
But it looks like this is the end of the line, anyway.
Well, looks like this as far as leveling naturally will take me - I haven't had to level with Egress since the Kraken, other than to bring the Creed characters up to the same level as the rest of the group. I'll try to get a victory run up later today.